Senior J&K BJP leader Devender Singh Rana passes away

Jammu, Nov 1 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and MLA of Nagrota constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, Devender Singh Rana passed away on late Thursday night in a hospital in Faridabad, BJP sources said.

He is the younger brother of Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Science and Technology, and Minister of State (Independent charge) for Earth Sciences.

Devender Singh Rana had won the 2014 Assembly elections on the National Conference (NC) ticket, but he retained the Nagrota seat on BJP ticket by a margin of 30,472 votes. His nearest rival, NC's Joginder Singh got 17,641 votes.

Rana won the 2024 legislative Assembly election by the highest margin against his rival.

No other candidate in the 2024 Assembly elections could manage such a massive victory against his rival candidate.

In the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the NC has 42, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 29, Congress 6, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 3, CPI-M 1, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 1, Peoples Conference (PC) 1 and Independent candidates have 7 seats.

Six out of the 7 independent MLAs have joined the NC.

The NC has formed the government headed by Omar Abdullah with the support of the Congress, 6 Independents, one Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and one AAP candidate.

The Congress, CPI-M and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have not joined the government. Congress has said that it will not join the Jammu and Kashmir government till statehood is restored.

The Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet headed by Omar Abdullah in its first meeting passed a resolution for restoration of statehood. Omar Abdullah went to Delhi and submitted a copy of this resolution to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The National Conference has also decided to bring in a resolution for the restoration of Article 370 in the legislative assembly session that begins on November 4.

--IANS

sq/pgh